Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by their inclusion in this section.
It is increasingly common for people to use devices, referred to in this disclosure as user equipment devices (UEs), to communicate via a radio access network (RAN) with other devices, whether those devices are directly connected to the same RAN or to another network (such as another RAN or a transport network, as examples) to which that RAN directly or indirectly provides access. When the RAN serves a UE, that UE may be able to engage in communications such as voice calls, packet-data sessions, text messaging (e.g., Short Message Service (SMS) messaging), and the like.
Furthermore, the wireless communication between the RAN and each UE is typically bidirectional in nature. An air interface defines what is known as an uplink and a downlink. The uplink may carry communications from each UE to the RAN, and the downlink may carry communications from the RAN to each UE. On both links, the wireless communications are typically formatted in accordance with a wireless communication protocol, examples of which include Long Term Evolution (LTE), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), and the like.
In RANs, the entity with which UEs communicate over the air interface is known as a base station or an access node. That entity contains the hardware, antennas, and other components that cooperate to actually conduct the over-the-air (OTA) communication with the UEs on behalf of the RAN.